1993 Beachhead and 1986 Beachhead

 And some random Snake Eyes photos of my old collection.

That's what this is.

What do you think about this swap of Beachhead figures?

What was I thinking about Beachhead before?

The 1993 o-ring is in there and it feels maybe just a little too tight.  With my main 1986 Beachhead having a broken crotch, and this is one of the third of three Beachheads (at least) to pass through my hands that had a broken crotch, it's a figure I have wanted to tighten up.  With new crotch.  But for the money, it would be almost better to buy a packaged figure to better ensure a figure ends up coming off the ebay in good shape.  

The 1986 Beachhead head does look a little large but larger looking heads seem to be a 1986 thing.  The 1993 head is really not too far of a departure in style, it is somewhat just the addition of a helmet and goggles.   The much more blue blue-green of the 1986 figure would contrast with this simple pants swap, though.

Maybe I should just put the 1986 green arms on the 1993 body?


Just some style notes, does one pair of pants bring more to Beachhead?   The magazine detail from 1986 was moved to the inside of the pants leg on one side.

Over on the other side, one knife will do as a second pistol holster  replaced the other knife.

This is my second loose 1993 Beachhead, the first had some discoloration.  The pants green on the 1993 just seems so close to the 1986 green I had to try the swap.
The green on the 1993 vest and the head almost seem like it was painted on top of the blue and it end up more blue-green because of this.

The 1993 vest style does not improve on Beachheads 1986 vest for me. 

While the 1993 Beachhead launcher has some nice details, the accessories have almost no appeal to me today, even though that Spearhead rifle is one of my favorite accessories. 

And a couple of Snake Eyes pictures.  The HoodedCobraCommander788 review on the 1991 Snake Eyes made me wonder if that wasn't even my Snake Eyes seen here that I sold years ago.  That's the original string on my photos.  

That's one of those accessories that just rarely even came out of whatever storage configuration I had.  I'm even somewhat wondering what I doing when I took the pictures as appears to be in my old HQ's kitchen on a tray that was sitting on top of the microwave. 

I thought I would mention this here and as the photobucket turned into a pain that makes it not easy to get photos off the site, and I am thinking I have the pictures elsewhere here but with the changes in media storage and a hard drive death, it's a project of proportion to sort through it all now.

G.I.Joe Ninja Force Scarlett 1993

Ninja Force figures were not big favorites from back in the day for me.  Ninja Force Zartan, Slice,  Dice, and Night Creeper were the figures I bought off the pegs, however.   I didn't have a Zartan until that figure came out.  I may have bought Dice first and then Slice, but it is worth mentioning the Marvel Comic was still running and with both of them in the story and the obvious team the pair made might have succeeded on leading me toward the purchases.    That's how my desire to have a Night Creeper (1990) may have swayed me into buy the Ninja Force Night Creeper, however THAT Night Creeper figure was nowhere near as cool as the Marvel Comic depiction of the figure.
The 1992 Firefly was also somewhat new to me at the time,  Despite the neon green that figure did get quite a lot of use.   Just thinking back to that point in life sort of brings back the vibe of my collection at that point right now.

I did buy the Shadow Ninja Bushido and Nunchuks but these purchases may have been more due to being on clearance around the end years of the Real American Hero line.  I don't think they got much use.

With the more recent purchase from a local shop of stuff, I picked up the Ninja Force Scarlett.  The ninja action gimmick is broken.  This gimmick along with the yellow weapons tree along with the more drastic departure from the Marvel Comic Scarlett's look made it easier for me to choose another figure for purchase at that time.   The "combat togs" did not seem very interesting to me or the less articulation waist and legs.

The 1982 Scarlett figure has not been more appealing to me either to purchase over the years, either.  Something about the Scarlett character in the Marvel Comic and the Sunbow cartoon somewhat really made that image something I wanted in the figure.  The "new-sculpt" years "version 6" was maybe my first Scarlett figure, my memory might correct me on this later, but a 2004 figure for a character that has been close to Snake Eyes status in exposure highlights the characters absence in my collection and "joe-verse" for quite a long time.

I think that 2004 figure left the building when I decided to trim out all the "new sculpt" figures when I was doing some major collection trimming.

The 2011 G.I.Joe Renegades figures were starting to really appeal to me and I bought the "version 14" Scarlett.  That's been my Scarlett since but the "modern" figures that are few in number have remained mostly separate from my main collection.   If the Renegades quality of design that I liked had continued I would have jumped on the figures more.  I somewhat wish I had bought more of them when I had the chance but this is also the same with the "Pursuit of Cobra" years where there are some really alright figures that advanced past the first 25th Anniversary style change of figures that I found in the long term to be kind of clunky.

Anyway, so now I have an actual A Real American Hero Scarlett figure for the first time.  I can see the design reasoning.   It has the unitard style not unlike the 1982 design and instead of the pad on the shoulder it has some floating armor pieces.   I thought these armor pieces made the figure less and they just seemed like things that were not very functional for a character that was likely going to be getting into some physical hand to hand combat.

The boots seem alright but the knee pads, and this goes for many of the Ninja Force I suppose, just a little too Ninja Turtles.

The overall figure colors are not crazy, the lime green has been seen here and there through the Real American Hero line.  The gold of the armor pieces might be what is the part I dislike the most, though.

And there are those felt straps, I kind of like.  A little extra on the figures even if they serve no real function.  If the fabric could have been worked around the torso it could have been like the "modern" web gear, maybe figure interchangeable, maybe even a small accessory holster of some sort slipped in the fabric for holding swords?

I like the head sculpt, though.  I am not doing a lot with my collection these days but it has that tough Marvel Comic Scarlett look with the red hair and pony tail that has become sort of the "it is" look for the character that has built up in my head.   Plus I have seen nice custom figures with this head, so it maybe destined for another figure body that has been in my possession for 26 years for almost this very custom purpose.   It's one that I hope is a simple swap but the Ninja Force Scarlett body will mostly destroyed to get to that point.   Then again, I can't recall seeing any pictures of the insides of a Ninja Force figure ever.

The yellow accessories that were with the figure have little appeal to me.  Checking out the full tree photos online I thought it was interesting seeing two "claw" parts on the tree.  Most of the accessories on that tree I like, just not the color.  That was a major purchase decision for me back in the day, the figure with the all black weapons trees were more appealing.

I have to wonder if these accessory tree molds still exist somewhere.

 
I am somewhat surprised that the Collectors Club created so many "modern" figures that stuck so close to the original designs, even down to the colors.  These are the colors from the years that were supposedly horrible and yet people online will jump on these "modern" brightly colored copies.  

If I had had the power I guess I would have taken what was good about the design and made it so it came out better.

Old G.I.Joe thoughts

The G.I.Joe Mudbuster was mentioned on the Forgotten Figures facebook page.   The Mudbuster was a vehicle that I wanted to like a lot, I mean it is just a pickup and kind of a jeep like addition, but the lack of steerable front wheels and spring fire rocket accessories left me wanting more.

A better weapon on the rear turret post would have been the way to go and the elimination of the holders on the tailgate.  The bumper ram feature replaced by static under the engine launchers could have done the same spring-fired gimmick while hiding the bulky spring mechanisms.  The Mudbuster sat up high enough where this would have worked.

How many vehicles share the same amount of parts across the G.I.Joe line?

Here's three, and the Ice Snake shares a lot of the exact same parts as the Mudbuster.

These are all gone now but I like the Ice Snake more than the Mudbuster looking back.  There is a lot more bulk to the Ice Snake than it seems, and it has more of bottom, as much as it has no bottom on part of it.   The Ice Snake would have more value for me now.


I have to wonder how the 1990 Hammer wheels were picked for the 1993 Ice Snake and Mudbuster, though?

New stuff and Robo J.O.E.

 

The local shop got some new G.I.Joe items, which are all old G.I.Joe items, but since I have not been there in some months I thought I would see if there was anything I could use.  And there really was not anything that I really had to have.   But, to support local I went with some smaller items that may fit into my little G.I.Joe (mostly inactive lately) universe.

Of course, a little overpaying for what it is, and not all complete.
I did not dig out my official "where I got it from" folder to add these so they will be sitting out for some time.  Even though my vacation is over this week at the H.Q., and the other half of the command team discontinued outside employment activities, this will give me a reason to work on the lower level of the H.Q. as we slide through fall and into winter.

I may or may not pick up the actual Headquarters (1983) that is at the local shop as I do miss having that little base for setting up.  I didn't look at the parts as the shop was busy and priced in the higher range with broken jail cell tabs, but it also sounded like the culmination of two sets that the shop had acquired.   Maybe, we'll seem, right?

What I picked up:





I'll get to the rest at a later time for what interested me in them, but with Halloween not too far behind us I though Robo J.O.E. would be a figure that would fun to look at here.  Forgotten figures Robo Joe mentions my original thoughts on the figure from back in the day, a higher-priced figure with limited articulation; the Armor Tech figures.  I bought Destro being that it was Destro back the day, and Duke.

 

The cybernetic side of possibilities on a relatively blank slate character draw my interest.  Other than that, Forgotten Figures really describes the figure well.  Even just putting the accessories in the the hands of this Armor Tech figure brought back memories of when I bought that Destro and Duke back in the day.  Big solid fists that turn in arms that are articulated less than the '82 straight arm figures.  Waists that do not turn and shorter stocky legs that two points of articulation don't help.

Then again, in some made up fiction, maybe this is the best technology available to fix up the scientific engineering genius at that time.  The unnamed G.I.Joe scientists are still unnamed.  The exact background the Greg Scott laboratory, aside from "robotic battle armor" needed to fight in space is really an open ended story to explore.  In some ways, does this not seem like some RoboCop style of origin..., maybe G.I.Joe has more going on in the background that hasn't been seen?

Either way, the MOS: Criminal Termination

and the SMOS: Outlaw

has to be one of the more non-standard skill sets added to the G.I.Joe roster over the years.

The Jet-Tech Operations Expert, or J.O.E., was built with the remaining part of the Greg Scott laboratory plans after the Destro attack, too.   What does that mean?   (what can I make up with an older imagination?)